Daimler Vow to Reverse Decline
At Chrysler Is Met by Skepticism

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Edited by Hugo Dixon

Updated June 4, 2003 5:19 p.m. ET

Five years on, Daimler's purchase of Chrysler looks like a really bad mistake. Characteristically, management isn't yielding the point. It says the turnaround of Chrysler is still on track, even if this year's target of a $2 billion (&euro;1.7 billion) operating profit has been scaled back by, well, $2 billion. It attributes this unexpected turn to a $1.2 billion loss in the second quarter to the stunning incentives offered, chiefly, by General Motors, which Chrysler expects to fade away in the second half of the year. Shareholders don't appear to believe DaimlerChrysler's promises, partly because they heard this...